Users have to set manually devices to be monitored in a heavy conf file, then it shows a web 2D static network metrology view, refreshed every 5'.

Mine generates a 3D map, from a simpler conf file (auto-computed graph device coordinates if not manually set) and shows a live metrology : 30" refresh rate, but could be less and continuous interpolated data so you can understand if they increase or decrease between two measures.

My goal : the user should see at a glance how his network runs.

So I want the incoming/outcoming flows are understandable (animated and directed), I want a flow to followable in a chain of devices (animation should solve this), I want the current speed is readable (speed of animation) and saturation/load is noticeable.

Load is how much a flow uses its link total bandwith : if a link is 1 Gbps max and the flow is currently 0.5 Gbps, it uses 50%.

So I want this load to visible. I imagined the flow radius could grow inside a link transparent tube according to this rate.

Here are some current prototypes examples on real university institute network live activity.

There aren't many students nowadays, so it's quite quiet... and it's a problem to tune because links are Gbps sized and the students consume only Kbps or Mbps, so quite no traffic.

If the animation doesn't start, just wait for two dozens of seconds before another measure is collected.

So I'm looking for ideas to display those incoming/outcoming flows with this needs (understanding speed, load, direction at a glance) : pairs of extruded shapes on the same axis, sprites running inside a tube or along a curve, particules, light rays ?

I tried with 100 tubes like this on a big central sphere, and performance are good.

Another idea (the one I picked) is to create two tubes, one inside another transparent one. The inside tube has an animated submesh (with another material), growing from the beginning of the tube to its end. Performances are really good, because the submesh growing just adds/removes more vertices to it.

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These are live backing visuals for a DJ Video streaming site called TRNSMT.tv, the background visuals were shown on a green screen and controlled live made using babylonjs (running in nw.js/node-webkit)The first hour of this video is the babylonjs visuals

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This is a game project, still largely unfinished though. Since I'm taking a break on this project, as I don't have so much time to allocate to it, I thought I'd still share it with you. I've been working hard to achieve acceptable performance with BabylonJS, so this may be of interest to some of you!

Currently implemented features:

- Random terrain generation with vegetation

- You can place buildings from the menu; placing a building will cost you construction materials (CMAT), which you can generate using a Construction Center

- Many buildings are functional, meaning they have internal components that can produce energy, process resources etc. To access a building functions, simply click on it and a menu will show you what you can interact with (beware, some buildings are turned off by default)

- Floating notification system above buildings

- Resource harvesting: build a mine or a harvest center, and then select the cells you'd like to harvest in the "resource view" menu

- Vehicles, which are not controlled directly but handled by the buildings themselves

To understand how Colonies work, you need to think in terms of "chain of needs". Let's say you want to produce energy: you can place a power plant that will process resources into energy. Now, this power plant needs resources, so you'll build a harvest center to provide them. Then, you need to click on the power plant, then on "add source building", then on the harvest center. Finally, turn on the harvest center and select zones to harvest in the resource view. You're done! vehicles will do the work and provide resources to your power plant.

I know, it's a bit complicated I guess it's also about trial and error.

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There are similarities with a city builder, it's true. Although what I'm aiming for is a game where you strive to keep your colony going in a foreign environment, where resources are sparse and must be managed carefully.

Building stuff isn't the hard part. The hard part is keeping them maintained and powered